Foreman Solberg

Henrik Solberg refused command for eight years. The holdup was the welders. He had worked the night shift at the Bornhom plate-mill for twenty-two years, and the captain's package did not include his crew. When the Combine agreed to a non-standard manning, every senior post filled by the old team, union seniority kept, he signed.

The Third Shift runs like a swing-shift mill. Rotating watches. A lunch break if the fight allows one. A grievance procedure for when the captain's order is bad. Solberg has stood down three inspectors who tried to kill the arrangement. The crew calls him Henrik on the bridge and will follow him through a wall. The Combine has classified the ship as an irregular asset and stopped trying to fix it.